Religions > Atheism > Letter may link DeLay to Abramoff tribal client Echoing lobbyist, Texas Republican sought closure of Indian casino
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
10 Jan 2006 08:53:19 PM |
| Object: |
Letter may link DeLay to Abramoff tribal client Echoing lobbyist, Texas Republican sought closure of Indian casino |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10794099/
Letter may link DeLay to Abramoff tribal client
Echoing lobbyist, Texas Republican sought closure of Indian casino
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:32 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2006
WASHINGTON - Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay tried to pressure
the Bush administration into shutting down an Indian-owned casino that
lobbyist Jack Abramoff wanted closed — shortly after a tribal client of
Abramoff’s donated to a DeLay political action committee, The Associated
Press has learned.
The Texas Republican demanded closure of the casino, owned by the
Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas, in a Dec. 11, 2001 letter to
then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, a move that likely would have
benefited Abramoff's client, a tribe running a competing casino.
“We feel that the Department of Justice needs to step in and investigate
the inappropriate and illegal actions by the tribe, its financial
backers, if any, and the casino equipment vendors,” said the letter,
which was also signed by Texas Republican Reps. Pete Sessions, John
Culberson and Kevin Brady.
The Associated Press obtained the letter from a source who did not want
to be identified because of an ongoing federal investigation of Abramoff
and members of Congress.
Sessions’ political action committee received $6,500 from Abramoff’s
tribal clients within three months after signing the letter. A
spokeswoman for Sessions said he considers gaming a state issue. She
said Sessions signed the letter in defense of Texas laws, arguing that
the tribe was circumventing state law.
Ashcroft never took action on the request. The Texas casino was closed
the following year by a federal court ruling in a 1999 lawsuit filed by
the state’s attorney general, John Cornyn, now a U.S. senator.
Kevin Madden, DeLay’s spokesman, said DeLay’s actions “were based on
policy considerations and their effect on his constituents. Mr. DeLay
always makes decisions with the best interests of his constituents in
mind.”
Letter to Texas politicians
The letter was sent at least two weeks after the Mississippi Band of
Choctaw Indians, a tribal client of Abramoff’s, contributed $1,000 to
Texans for a Republican Majority, or TRMPAC. That political action
committee is at the center of the campaign finance investigation that
yielded money laundering charges against DeLay and forced him
temporarily out of the majority leader’s job.
The letter also was sent to Interior Secretary Gale Norton; the U.S.
attorney for Texas’ eastern district; the chairman of the National
Indian Gaming Commission and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who took over when
Bush was elected president.
The letter's author appears to have been unfamiliar with the
Alabama-Coushatta. It said the tribe was based in “Livingstone” and that
the tribe had opened a casino “against the wishes of the citizens of
Alabama.” The tribe’s reservation is in Livingston, Texas.
At the time of the letter, Abramoff was working for the Louisiana
Coushatta and had portrayed the Alabama-Coushatta’s Houston-area casino
as a threat to his client’s casino.
Corporate entanglements
The revelation comes as DeLay has said he has given up trying to regain
the majority leader post. DeLay had insisted until Saturday that he
would reclaim the job after clearing his name in the campaign finance
investigation.
DeLay is awaiting trial on charges he funneled corporate contributions —
largely banned in Texas elections — through TRMPAC and the Republican
National Committee to the campaigns of several GOP state legislative
candidates. On Monday, an appeals court denied his request that the
charges be dismissed.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians made the TRMPAC contribution on
Nov. 28, 2001, according to court documents. An attorney for the Choctaw
declined comment on how the tribe decided on contributing to TRMPAC.
Abramoff pleaded guilty to federal charges and is cooperating with
investigators whose bribery probe is now focusing on several members of
Congress and their aides, including a former DeLay aide. Abramoff’s
former business partner Michael Scanlon, DeLay’s former press aide, also
has pleaded guilty in the case.
The contributions are not necessarily illegal, but DeLay’s association
with Abramoff is under scrutiny. DeLay has taken overseas trips paid for
in part by Abramoff, and his national political action committee used a
skybox leased by Abramoff to treat donors to a concert.
Tribe involved in bribery scheme
The Alabama-Coushatta were never clients of Abramoff or Scanlon. But
Abramoff targeted the tribe in his work for the Louisiana Coushatta,
first trying to shut down their casino and then trying to become a
lobbyist for the Alabama-Coushatta.
He and Scanlon were in a panic a month before the letter when the
Alabama-Coushatta’s chief said the tribe was opening a casino.
In e-mail, they discussed getting an official to threaten to jail the
tribal chairman.
According to court documents, Abramoff also used the Alabama-Coushatta
to carry out one of his bribery schemes.
Federal investigators have alleged that Representative 1 — later
identified as Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio — agreed in June 2002 to introduce
and pass a legislative provision that would eliminate a federal ban
against commercial gaming for the Alabama-Coushatta “at Abramoff’s
request.”
Abramoff pleaded guilty to telling Ney in June 2002 that a client, the
Tigua tribe of Texas, was raising money for Ney’s trip to Scotland. The
Tigua had turned down Abramoff’s request for the money.
$50,000 to Abramoff foundation
Alabama-Coushatta Chairman Ronnie Thomas and McClamrach Battise, a
tribal council member, said the tribe wrote a $50,000 check to
Abramoff’s Capital Athletic Foundation after the tribe was approached by
the Tigua. But the tribe was not told the charity belonged to Abramoff.
The foundation cashed the tribe’s check on July 24, 2002, the same day
the Alabama-Coushatta closed its casino.
“We never knew Abramoff was in the picture,” Battise said.
Carlos Hisa, lieutenant governor of the Tiguas, said he did not tell the
Alabama-Coushatta that Abramoff wanted the money.
“We told them it was for a golfing trip and certain individuals from
Congress were going to go that were going to help us with our cause,”
Hisa said. “Abramoff had told us even from the very beginning the entire
thing was top secret. Only a few could know because the language was
going to be sneaked in.”
Hisa said he regrets not being more truthful. “I didn’t set out to do
any damage to the tribe,” he said.
Documents show Abramoff hoped to eventually be on the tribe’s payroll,
making millions for helping them reopen the casino DeLay wanted shut
down. Abramoff was pressing a Tigua representative to get the
Alabama-Coushatta to sign over 10 percent of the tribe’s future gaming
revenues to a “foundation” he would later designate.
Frederick Petti, an attorney for the Alabama-Coushatta, has filed a
demand letter for return of its $50,000 and damages with Greenberg
Traurig, Abramoff’s former employer.
Greenberg Traurig spokeswoman Jill Perry would not answer questions
about the letter but said in an e-mailed statement that the firm
demanded Abramoff resign when he told them of his conduct. The plea
agreement has revealed further conduct the firm was unaware of, she
said.
© 2006 The Associated Press
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
.
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: Letter may link DeLay to Abramoff tribal client Echoing lobbyist, Texas Republican sought closure of Indian casino |
11 Jan 2006 11:00:44 AM |
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In <orr8s1pgouvomapjlho4mt49abrcb8vd07@4ax.com>, stoney <stoney@the.net>
wrote:
The letter's author appears to have been unfamiliar with the
Alabama-Coushatta. It said the tribe was based in “Livingstone” and that
the tribe had opened a casino “against the wishes of the citizens of
Alabama.”
<snork>
Sure, shut down the casinos in Alabama, go 'head...
--
Mark K. Bilbo
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